As parents and students get set to buy textbooks for the next academic year, some say they will not pick the unbundled teaching materials until the government confirms details of allowances.

As the tug-of-war between publishers and the Education Bureau over separating textbooks from bundled teaching materials remains unresolved, parents still need to pay an average of HK$3,000 for textbooks.

Besides, the prices of unbundled textbooks, which account for 5 percent of the market, did not drop significantly and thus did not help alleviate the burden on parents this year.

Publishers indicated that the unbundled textbooks are not highly sought after.

Principal Cheung Wai-ching from the St. Bonaventure Catholic Primary School told RTHK that the school did not consider choosing the separated teaching materials because the prices are similar to the not unbundled ones.

"We should be cautious with the money we spend, given the fixed amount of allowance. We are happy to know that the Education Bureau will give us (extra) allowance but for the time being, but our policy remains the same since the money is not allocated to us yet," Cheung said.

Tik Chi-yuen, chairman of the Hong Kong Institute of Family Education, a parents' concern group, urged the government not to drag its feet.

A spokeswoman for the bureau insisted that "if schools do not have sufficient resources to purchase necessary teaching materials, additional resources can be allocated through the existing funding mechanism".

However, "in the absence of pricing information, it cannot be ascertained whether schools have sufficient resources to purchase teaching materials," she added. "The publishers should first unbundle the prices for all textbooks and teaching materials. Then we would conduct a survey to find out the real situation regarding schools' purchases of teaching materials."

According to the Consumer Council's annual survey on the price of commonly used school textbooks, the average increases in textbook prices this year are 3.8 percent, for primary school textbooks, and 4.3 percent, for middle school ones, exceeding the 3.3 percent rise in the composite consumer price index.

Publishers have attributed the price increase to the continuous decrease in student numbers as well as inflation which results in the cost increase of raw materials, staffing and production, also the fact that the price of textbooks has been frozen for two years.

The bureau demanded publishers unbundle all textbooks, including question samples and teachers' textbooks within one year, but publishers had claimed they would need three more years to complete the transition, citing issues such as copyright.

The bureau warmed that if publishers fail to comply, it will call in tenders "to introduce more competition into the monopolized textbook market".

Tik of the concern group expected textbook prices to fall by 20-30 percent with new competitors joining the market.

"This will not only alleviate the burden of grassroots families, but also save public money for giving lower grants to students under the School Textbook Assistance Scheme," Tik said.

mingyeung@chinadailyhk.com

China Daily

(HK Edition 07/30/2011 page1)